IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 18

Describe your experience when you lost something important.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer:

About two years ago, I lost something that I really held dear to my heart. It was a smartphone that I received from my elder brother (he bought it from abroad) as a gift. I lost my expensive gift at an ATM booth while trying to withdraw some cash on a day when I was supposed to stay indoors all day. What an irony! I guess, a little caution on our part not to leave our smartphones on top of an ATM booth out of our forgetful minds, while trying to withdraw some cash, wouldn’t harm us at all.

Anyway, after losing my Samsung Galaxy S9 in such a manner, I naturally started to blame myself as it was my careless attitude that had cost me my precious gift. I rushed back to the booth immediately after realizing my mistake, but my little smart machine was gone by then. I even contacted the bank authority, which owned the ATM booth, in a desperate attempt to get my phone back, but what I heard from the bank authority was just too demoralizing.

Anyway, I remained depressed the whole day after losing my phone as it carried so many histories and fond memories of mine. Later on, I also couldn’t help but remembering how the phone didn’t break even after being dropped from my hands on numerous occasions. After all, it was a very strong little device with all the necessary and important features of a smartphone, and after losing it, I felt like a man without his most important tool!

After losing that phone, of course, I bought a few other phones as well, but I never really felt quite attached to them like I did to the one I had lost. Was it because I had lost it due to my negligence? Perhaps so.